Freedom of Religion
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;”… so begins the first amendment to the Constitution of the United States. Have you ever thought about what that means, or how that works out in individual lives?
I have heard our president and many people of his same persuasion ignore the actual wording and refer, instead, to our “freedom to worship”. Consider this for a moment. Is the freedom to worship the same as, or equal to, the free exercise of religion? How does one “exercise” religion?
In my opinion, there is a huge difference between these two phrases. To me, the freedom to worship means you can choose to attend whatever church, temple, mosque, or whatever assembly, and to worship whatever god you choose to worship, in whatever way, or as often, as you want.
BUT, the ability to freely “exercise” our religion is a whole different animal, and it’s a big problem for those on the left who want to change the meaning of our first amendment, in order to restrict the rights of those who are very religious. To “exercise” our religion means to live out our beliefs in our everyday lives, not just to worship at certain times or places. It means we have the right to apply our religious beliefs in every situation we find ourselves in, where-ever we go, and what-ever we do or say, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week!
To the evangelical Christian, for instance, the meaning of this phrase fits perfectly with the words of Jesus and the Bible. Jesus said if we love Him, we will obey His teachings. (His teachings equate to the whole Bible in the eyes of these believers, because all of God’s Word teaches us how to live and behave, what God requires from us, etc.) That means, in practical terms, whatever situation a fundamental, Bible believing Christian finds himself in, he acts according to what he has come to believe from God’s Word would be the appropriate way to act.
For example, when a Christian baker or photographer or florist, for example, is asked to participate in a wedding between two people of the same sex, he knows he cannot do this because his participation would give his blessing or approval to such a union, and he knows same-sex behavior goes against so many Scriptures in the Bible, and therefore goes against his religious beliefs. By refusing to participate, he is simply exercising his freedom of religion. It doesn’t mean he hates anyone. In fact the Christian is commanded to love everyone, even his enemies. But you can’t disobey God to please men. That isn’t really love.
In spite of our constitutional right to exercise our religion, many business owners in America today are fighting their way through the court systems to get justice because they have been forced out of business by the bullies who have ignored their religious rights and convicted them of discrimination simply because they have exercised the freedom of religion guaranteed them by the First Amendment.
A powerful lobbying effort by the LGBT community (who number, by the way, less than 3 % of the population of the US) has persuaded people that their “right” to “marry” (and their right to coerce business owners to participate in their weddings) out-weighs the rights of these business owners to their free exercise of religion!
Thoughts to Ponder 